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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739145">An Introduction</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress'>I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Littles Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Among Us (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, CGRE - Caregiver/Regressor, Gen, Implied Body Horror, Mentions of Murder, No Romance, nothing graphic, the characters have names beyond their colors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:09:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,040</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739145</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There are two impostors among us.</p><p>No, there aren't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Crewmate &amp; Impostor (Among Us), Orange &amp; Yellow (Among Us)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Littles Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946254</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>92</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Introduction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There were two impostors among them.</p><p>Well, no, that's not entirely true. They were impostors in the sense that they are not human, but plenty of non-human beings were friendly enough. The problem was figuring out where these impostors fit into the grand scheme of things.</p><p>Yellow nodded to Orange, who nodded back as the pod landed on the base everyone was working at. They all had their tasks, and the humans were going about doing them. The impostors were there, watching, waiting for the right time to kill. That was, after all, what their mission was supposed to be. Yellow walked around, pretending to be doing tasks as secretly they sabotaged the base. They couldn't have the humans find out, but there was just no feasible way to stop them other than killing them, or so everyone back on the home planet thought.</p><p>These two impostors were about to get a surprise.</p><p>The first signal that something strange was going on was the laughter. Over comms, the humans were laughing, playfully chatting with each other, talking about "playing" with each other when all their tasks were done. Yellow shook their head minutely. These humans were different from the other crews they had infiltrated, but that wasn't necessarily odd. Humans were all kinds of different. Not in their shape, but in their minds.</p><p>The second signal that something strange was going on happened when Orange shut off the lights. The comms went quiet for a minute as the lights dimmed, and then there was a soft whimpering as one of the humans whispered, "Who turned off the lights?"</p><p>"I don't know," another one whispered, clearly terrified. "But I don't like the dark."</p><p>"I'll turn the lights back on, don't worry," a third said. Yellow knew that Orange was lying in wait to find one of the humans and trap them, killing them in the electrical room. It was Orange's preferred way to kill someone. Get them isolated while they fixed something, and then strike.</p><p>But that kill never came. As Yellow waited for the signal that Orange had taken care of the human, they grew more and more impatient. Eventually, the lights turned back on. Yellow growled and stalked over to electrical, certain that something had happened to Orange, and they were totally ready to take revenge if Orange had been hurt. What they found instead shocked them.</p><p>Black was curled up on the floor in the corner, trembling like a leaf as Orange stood in the middle of the room, mouth exposed. "What's going on here?!" Yellow asked, pretending to be another crew member for now.</p><p>"Yellow," Orange said. "We can't do this."</p><p>"What do you mean?" Yellow asked, beginning to panic. What had Orange said to this one?</p><p>"I mean," Orange said pointedly, "Have you not noticed anything different about this crew?"</p><p>"They're childish," Yellow said. "What does that have to do with anything?"</p><p>Black took off his head and Yellow took a step back in shock. What was going on? Underneath Black's head was another, smaller head, with graying hair, but big, wide eyes, like a young child might have. "Have you come to kill me?" he asked, in an impossibly soft voice. "Is my time up?"</p><p>Yellow didn't know how to respond.</p><p>"They're little ones, Yellow," Orange said. "They're like the children we raise at home. I can't kill a child."</p><p>"This one's not a child, look at their hair," Yellow said, pointing. "Now I know what the human expression 'going gray' means."</p><p>"Yellow," Orange said sharply. "They may not be a child in body, but they <em>are</em> a child in mind. I don't know how, but they are. And I. Will not. Kill. A child."</p><p>Yellow took a deep breath. "What are we to do, then?" they asked. "We can't let them <em>stay</em> here!"</p><p>"Why not? We can keep them away from our home planet, can't we? Without killing them?" Orange said. "Falsify the reports. Tell the humans our planet is inhospitable. They'll move on without forcing a war on us."</p><p>Yellow growled, an inhuman growl, but before they could speak, Black had started to cry. Yellow looked over, finding Black's <em>real</em> eyes leaking fluid, and their nose looking not that far off. The noises they made were muffled, but not silent, and Yellow's heart twinged with sympathy. They <em>were</em> a child. Somehow. "Do they always send children to explore these planets?!" Yellow asked, anger growing not at Orange, but at the humans. "Do they send children to do what an adult should?! Have we been killing children <em>all this time, Orange?!"</em></p><p>"I don't think so," Orange said. "I'm checking my tablet. All the humans' knowledge is on there. There's this thing called Age Regression on it. I think...I think these are adults who use this...this tool, as a coping mechanism."</p><p>"To what end?" Yellow asked.</p><p>"Probably the same end that some of our species use tools to cope, Yellow," Orange said. "Simply to feel better."</p><p>Yellow sighed in frustration. "Well, I can't kill a child, either. In body or in mind. But they know now. They'll throw us into the lava by the end of the day."</p><p>"I don't want to," Black sniffled.</p><p>Yellow turned to the human. "What?" they asked.</p><p>"I don't want to throw you in the lava," Black said. Their voice was soft and slightly higher in pitch than usual, but not overly so. "If you don't kill me that means you're not a bad person. And if you're not a bad person then I don't want to throw you in the lava."</p><p>"What's your name?" Orange asked.</p><p>"Orange, we're not supposed to get attached!" Yellow snapped.</p><p>"To hell with protocol, I want to know their name!" Orange snapped back.</p><p>"My name's Peter. Peter Jones," they said. "I'm the Commander, even if I do get little sometimes."</p><p>Yellow sighed. "Well, now we've done it. We can't go back to home planet now. They'll know that we didn't kill the humans and they'll make us into their new pair of shoes."</p><p>"Don't be so dramatic, Yellow," Orange said. "I thought you wanted to retire after this mission."</p><p>"I do!" Yellow snapped. "Which means going back to home planet! But now we can't!"</p><p>"Maybe I don't want to go back to home planet!" Orange said. "Maybe I'm tired of killing humans! Maybe I just want to take care of them for once!"</p><p>"You know we can't!" Yellow snapped, feeling tears come to their own eyes behind the visor they used for their human disguise.</p><p>Peter shuffled forward. "But...if you're not killing us, and you're not going back there...you <em>can</em> do what you want?" He shrugged. "It's like when all the adults are gone. You can do what you want so long as you make them think you're following the rules when they check on you."</p><p>Yellow and Orange looked at each other. "He has a point," Orange pointed out. "It's he, right?"</p><p>"Yeah," Peter said softly.</p><p>"I know he has a point, don't remind me," Yellow said, putting their hands to their visor. "This is a disaster."</p><p>"Should I call an emergency meeting?" Peter asked. "To get the others' thoughts on it?"</p><p>"If they find out we're impostors, we'll die," Yellow said.</p><p>"Not if I say no," Peter challenged. "We can explain that you're impostors but you want to be humans, so we can teach you how to be nice and human and stuff."</p><p>Yellow hesitated. That sounded better than any alternatives they could come up with. "...All right," Yellow sighed. "We can hold an emergency meeting. But if they try to kill us, I'm taking you with me."</p><p>"Put your helmet on, little one, we'll go to the office," Orange said.</p><p>Black did so and together the three of them walked to the office. Everyone else was wandering around, doing tasks, so no one saw them walking together. Black pushed the emergency meeting button and everyone was rushing to the office in an instant. "What's going on?" Blue asked.</p><p>"Did someone die?" Purple asked, dread in their voice.</p><p>"Someone would have reported that, not called an emergency meeting," Blue pointed out.</p><p>They chattered and worried until all ten people were in the room. Peter took off his helmet and cleared his throat. "Everyone," he said. "Orange and Yellow are impostors."</p><p>The entire room became an outcry of rage, fear, and the threat of fighting. Peter held up a hand and they quieted. "However," he continued. "They don't want to hurt us. They want to be human, in the sense that they just want to go about their day-to-day lives with us. Is anyone here against that?"</p><p>No one said a word. Peter looked to Yellow and Orange. "Anything you two want to say?" he asked.</p><p>"Yellow and I want to say that we don't want to hurt you. Any of you," Orange said. "We know about coping skills you may or may not use, too, and if any of you all use ones that require supervision, we can help take care of you, in addition to, you know, refraining from murdering you."</p><p>Everyone was quiet. Then, Pink spoke. "I'm okay with that. You just want to live with us? That's fine."</p><p>"Frankly, I'm just relieved that you aren't killing us. We've all heard the stories about impostors on the ships," Purple added.</p><p>The room murmured various agreements. Orange looked to Yellow, who was still in shock. "Why are you being nice to us?" Yellow asked. "Every crew I've ever been on before has tried to eject my partners out of the air lock or thrown them in lava. Ordinary humans thrive on fear-mongering."</p><p>"Well, I guess we're not ordinary humans," Lime said with a shrug.</p><p>White spoke up. "I don't know about you all, but I'm hungry. Should we go to the Mess and talk it over more there? Figure out living arrangements and whatnot?"</p><p>All the humans agreed and started to walk out. When Peter saw that Orange and Yellow hadn't moved, he asked, "You coming?"</p><p>"Us too?" Yellow asked in surprise as Orange simply started moving to the door.</p><p>"Of course," Peter said. "You're crew, after all. You're allowed to eat too."</p><p>"We thought humans were just these suits," Yellow said, following Peter out the door. "We don't even know what humans truly look like."</p><p>"Well, we can show you," Peter said with a shrug. "So long as you stick to eating the food in the Mess and not us, there will be no problems. We might stare a bit if you have more than one mouth, but we'll do our best to be polite."</p><p>As Yellow mused over this, everyone kept moving to the Mess and made their own meals. Yellow and Orange did so as well and took off their helmets once they realized that, to all humans, that's what these heads were. They morphed into relatively human shape, but neither Orange or Yellow could get the eyes quite right. "It's okay," Red said with a giggle. "If anyone off-planet asks we can just say you're big fans of colored contacts. That, or we can use makeup and special effects to distract from your eyes."</p><p>"Who wants to have a snowball fight after lunch?" Lime asked excitedly.</p><p>The crew went up in a crowd of "Me!" and Orange tutted. "You lot will get hypothermia if you're not careful," they warned.</p><p>"Aw, but snowball fights are fun! And our suits are thermal-proof!" Lime exclaimed.</p><p>"No more than half an hour outside playing in the snow, clear? Then you should go inside and finish your tasks," Orange said.</p><p>"Ugh, fine, <em>Dad,"</em> Lime said in a snarky voice.</p><p>Rather than get angry, like Yellow expected, Orange just laughed. "Be careful," they warned. "If you say that enough times I might just start calling myself that!"</p><p>The room laughed and Yellow awkwardly joined in, but inside, their mind was reeling. Humans were so vastly different than what they had expected. All this time, had home planet been wrong about them? Maybe not as a species, but were their tactics wrong? Could it be possible that...not all humans needed to be killed to stay away from home planet?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story is part of the <a href="https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject">LLF Comment Project</a>, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:</p><ul> <li>Short comments</li> <li>Long comments</li> <li>Questions</li> <li>“&lt;3” as extra kudos</li> <li>Reader-reader interaction</li> </ul><p>
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